This is what happened when simple minds and power-hungry politicians used bigoted language to incite hatred amongst their own people. What is happening in Kenya has been fomenting for a number of years. It just boiled over after the last elections were rigged. Politicians and their groupies have been silently spreading ethnic and tribal code words in these communities for a number of years....culminating in what is today described by the US undersecretary for African affairs as ethnic cleansing.
The tragedy happening in Kenya could have been avoided if Kenyans stood up to ethnic bigots years ago and nip their message of intolerance in the bud. Most bigoted commentators have their facts wrong. They trade in half-truths and innuendo to past aspersions on a group of people they happened to hate.
This is one of the reasons why a lot of my countrymen were aghast to read on the front page of the GambiaEcho, a fact-free tirade against the Gambia's largest tribe by Sheriff Samsudeen Sarr. If you read Sam's piece and have no inclination to Gambian politics and society, you will come away with the feeling that the Mandinkas of the Gambia are just a tribalist lot...bent on dominating their fellow countrymen. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sam Sarr knew this...but he has an agenda all along...and that is to castigate and demonize an entire tribe.
However, it is sobering to see how many other Gambians took it upon themselves to counter Sam's blatant disregard for history and call him out for what he is... a tribal man. Saul Saidykhan's piece is legendary in this respect. If we let the Samsudeen Sarrs of the world get away with spreading false and insidious messages based on their personal vendettas then we are headed for a rude awakening. The consequences will be deadly. That is the lesson Kenya is teaching Gambians....squash the hatred before it consumes your nation in death and anarchy.
The past few weeks of the primaries has been rather nasty. We saw Clinton Inc. play dirtier than we could have ever imagined. They pull all the stops and dirty tricks. They continuously race-baited an honorable man for having the audacity to challenge their quest for a third term. We've heard them call Obama a "fairytale." We've seen Bill Clinton yelling at reporters who dare question his cut throat tactics. Tonight the Mark Penn / Clinton strategy of "unless they tell you otherwise - it's legal" has been exposed and defeated. Obama has won by close to 30 points and this crushing win changes everything. And we deserve to celebrate tonight!
Two months ago Hillary Clinton was leading among all demographics in South Carolina. She was cruising to her coronation. Tonight is a different story. South Carolina voted for hope and change. The exit poll numbers have shown what we all already knew - Bill Clinton hurts Hillary more than he helps. He runs around getting testy with reporters, pushing the negativity, spinning and deceiving - like what he did with Obama's Reagan quotes. He failed big time. South Carolina rejected these dirty politics.
Now it is a time to focus on the February 5th contests. Get younger voters out as usual and appeal to the inherent good in every voter…or what the Clintons called false hope.We have cause to celebrate tonight. The Obama campaign face down the politics of personal destruction without flinching and came out victorious. Now that is hot…
"Some call it a fairytale - I call it the American dream"
I almost forgot how effing good it feels when the right guy actually wins the election. Congratulations to Senator Obama and on to New Hampshire!!!
...it is the dawn of a new day in America. Change is in the air...
...it is the dawn of a new day in America. Change is in the air...
It is finally here...the Iowa caucus. Change we can believe in begins tonight. If the polls are a representative sample of the Iowa caucus goer, senator Obama will win Iowa tonight.
He ran a great campaign up to this point and all things considered, he will be heading to New Hampshire tomorrow with a victory in Iowa.
Good luck Obama...
"Fire up...ready to go."
Machetes ... oh the dreaded machetes are been brandished in Kenya. It is a dreary sight after the havoc they wield in Rwanda. The aftermath of last week's elections in that East African nation is more complicated than Gore versus Bush in 2000.
The Kenyan election was almost certainly rigged in favor of the incumbent... that is what often happens in Africa. However, contesting it with machetes is going to tear Kenya along tribal lines and undermine the recent progress made by that nation. But leaving the results of a rigged election to stand is no panacea either.
The world community stood aside while Rwandans were slaughtered in a murderous tribal rage. Never again, they vowed will such a thing come to pass. The Europeans were skeptical of the results from the get-go:
The head of a European Union team of observers, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, promptly spoke about deep misgivings concerning the counting process. Diplomats in Nairobi, the capital, pointed the finger at the Kikuyu old guard, men who had feared that they would lose their fortunes if Mr Odinga had made it into StateHouse. Even if Mr Kibaki's cronies are innocent of charges of vote rigging, he will have no national mandate: outside of the Kikuyu lands, Mr Kibaki was soundly beaten across the country, including in Nairobi.
By contrast, the US state department's initial statement on the results was shameful. They legitimized a sham election with a congratulatory note. They have since backed from that statement, but the harm may have been done.
I am fearful that Kenya is drifting towards Rwanda's recent fate unless the world community voiced out and take action now. If you think this is an exaggeration, well the trend line isn't encouraging. Money quote:
In Nairobi, the capital, tribal militias squared off against each other in several slums. Witness reports indicate that more 200 people have been killed in the past two days in violence connected to a disputed election Kenya held last week.Tribal militias armed with machetes...does it ring a bell?
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